Even after widening the two main stretches running through the city, road users find it difficult to drive comfortably on the Avinashi Road and Tiruchi Road because of lack of lane discipline. Every vehicle wants to overtake the other leading to congestion of space.
Though motorists have to wait just a couple of minutes at signals, most of them are impatient. They want to race ahead seconds before the signal turns green, posing risks to law abiding citizens.
“Youth driving modern motor bikes with broad rear wheels speed past regardless of heavy traffic. They have scant respect for fellow road users,” says S. Sivasubramaniam a bank employee. He alleges that the police too stand silent spectators to such driving.
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Competition between buses in reaching the bus stops, and crossing the signal even after it turns red add to the misery of smaller vehicle users. At times smaller vehicle riders are forced to go off the road or take the risk of immediately changing the lane when a bus or other speeding heavy vehicle came close to overtaking.
About four years ago the city police tried to bring in lane system on Avinashi Road. Separate lanes were earmarked for two-wheelers, four-wheelers, and for heavy vehicles. The police were deployed at important junctions on the road to educate motorists on sticking to respective lanes. Motorists refused to cooperate, say the police.
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Now some of the road users want the system reintroduced.
(reporting by
M.K. Ananth)